Energy costs are an increasingly important financial concern for residential, commercial, and industrial utility consumers. Due to persistently rising environmental concerns and expanding energy usage and prices, energy conservation devices and methods are in high demand. Electrical utility providers have engaged in charging customers for power at increased rates depending on whether energy consumption takes place during “peak”, “mid-peak”, or “off-peak” hours. Customers may also be charged based on peaks in power measured by the utility provider during billing periods. These charges are colloquially called “peak demand charges,” or simply “demand charges,” and they can constitute a significant portion of a utility customer's overall electrical utility bill. As technologies such as fast-charge electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, computers, HVAC systems, electric water heaters, and other high-wattage electrical consumption devices become more prevalent, demand charges have become a bigger and bigger burden on consumers.
Many customers do not even know that their utility provider is charging them for their peak demand. Those that do know have attempted to address the problem to varying, albeit limited, degrees of success. One way to manage demand charges is to use additional energy sources to supplement or offset the consumer's reliance on the utility grid. A solar panel or other generator may be used to supply extra power to the customer or may be turned on when a peak period is approaching. These solutions, however, are usually only effective at reducing the power drawn from the grid in general, thus not targeting the actual coincidence of the peak(s), or they are dependent upon the customer knowing that a peak or spike in demand is coming in advance, and that is not always possible. Some systems attempt to directly offset demand by discharging an energy source when a peak occurs, but they are usually expensive and do not have long lifespans.
As a result, there remains a need for improvements in systems and methods that manage and minimize electrical utility demand charges for consumers.